2025/09/06 by Summer Gray · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Environmental Science · #Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration #Disaster Management and Resilience #Flood Risk Assessment and Management
paper · doi:10.1108/dpm-06-2024-0167
openalex publication_date 2025/09/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Purpose This aim of this paper is to introduce the concept of privileged vulnerability, highlighting the interconnected relationships that sustain social and environmental injustices in disaster contexts while emphasizing the link between environmental privilege, risk and the production of vulnerability. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on Montecito, California, as a case study, a historical-structural approach is used to examine how affluence and vulnerability intersect, emphasizing how historical patterns of exclusion have sustained hazard-prone geographies. The 2017 Thomas Fire and subsequent 2018 debris flows serve as focal points for analyzing how wealth and privilege shape risk and vulnerability. This approach aligns with the call to “study up,” shifting attention to the mechanisms through which power and privilege operate. Findings Findings reveal the inherent risks of exurban affluence and the uneven distribution of resources in disaster response and recovery. In the case of Montecito, privileged vulnerability is situated in histories of colonialism, housing discrimination and environmental privilege and operates not only through the initial production of risk but also through the ways in which the aftermath of a disaster reinforces inequity. It entails a cycle in which public resources are directed toward maintaining idyllic but inherently precarious and exclusionary environments while externalizing vulnerability onto others. Originality/value As climate change accelerates, privileged vulnerability is likely to intensify, deepening existing inequities. This paper advances critical studies of vulnerability by bringing them into conversation with environmental privilege, offering new insights into how affluence shapes risk and vulnerability.